Psalm gives his opinion on speakers from his mom's basement

Discussion in 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' started by Taverius, Apr 25, 2019.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Give it a six inches. Bass is omnidirectional.
     
  2. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    I read about guys buying esoteric amps before speakers in the Aegir thread and my brain was like WTF?


    Fools amp flexing over overall sound? Amp flexing first is the European approach? What Eurotrash techno monkeys do that? Amps before speakers? Using wimpy speakers to flex a special amp on the internet rather than bringing down the house? Who are these fools? Housewives listening to cooking music coming off a Bose?


    Often the speakers will have switches or bungs to compensate for such poor placement, Other speakers will be fart rockets:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2019
  3. elmoe

    elmoe Friend

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    Well shit, that goes against pretty much everything I've read about speaker placement. Kid is asleep now but I will give this a try tomorrow.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Well sort of.

    Many modern narrow baffle www.orfas.org type speakers like these $100k Magicos (maybe @ultrabike remembers the model) are designed to be used a few feet away from the walls. I think this model had several decent sized woofers, but efficiency wasn't too good, probably made slightly worse by the baffle step correction that needed to be applied for them to run so far from the walls.

    The vintage stuff (and most JBLs and all pro monitors to this day) are designed to be used in this way or have adjustability to correct for boundary reinforcement.

    What's happened over the past 40 years is that efficiency went out the window. Ideas like using wall boundaries, wider baffles, bigger inherently more efficient drivers, controlled dispersion (again, more efficient), all thrown out the window.

    As for power and efficiency, think of it this way. Let's run an 80W amp into a 88db efficient speaker. Now if the speaker were 98db efficient, that would be like running an 800W amp into the 88db speaker. (10db = x10 more power). This is what I mean by free power. A massive amount of power is required to double volume (x4 power for 6db).
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2019
  5. mkozlows

    mkozlows Friend

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    Is some of that in the pursuit of better off-axis performance as home theater setups came to dominate just-music setups?
     
  6. Poleepkwa

    Poleepkwa Friend

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    "Real" home-theater LCR speakers are usually WAY more efficient than a lot of hifi-speakers. They are also bigger , which gives them a lot better directivity, not necessarily better off-axis performance.
     
  7. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    When i put my subwoofer on a stand it was way easier to integrate. Had it 90% where i wanted in minutes, then small tweaks and listening for a couple of days.
     
  8. Muse Wanderer

    Muse Wanderer Friend

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    A huge advantage of dual 15 inch woofer open baffles is their relative light weight especially when an aluminium frame is used. You can easily move them in and out of their position in a few seconds.

    My PAPs live with the frame stacked up against the wall, the front baffles merely 9 inches away. They are a living room wall feature which my wife doesn't mind! My room is just 10 feet wide btw.

    When I am in listening mood, I shift them out 3 - 4 feet away from front wall nicely toed in. Easy peasy.
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2019
  9. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Open baffles are the most DIY friendly. You don't have to worry about straight edges as much and it's okay to be off by a millimeter or so. Even keeping everything together with screws is fine.
     
  10. Huhnkopf

    Huhnkopf Friend

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    @purr1n ,

    can you say anything about the madness of JBL using side subwoofers on the L7? What was the technical reason for this?

    I have those hugeass JBL L7s from the early 90s that I couldn't give away because I kinda grew up with them (they were my father's, he imported them from a SF store) so I'm using them even in my rather small flat but I can't give up space between them like in the old days when I lived at home in a house and thus the space is covered by a lowboard. It's a bit unfortunate so a subwoofer has to do but still. Curious about this design choice.
     
  11. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Ashamed to say that I never even knew about open-baffle speakers until a few years ago: I always thought the speaker would have no real sound without a box! Put right on that by seeing and hearing a DIY open-baffle setup performing magnificently. Why on earth bother with all that carpentry? Maybe because it goes some way towards justifying the price of speakers.

    But... this guy did have a whole big room, with plenty of space, and perhaps that is part of the recipe.

    (He was also a bit of a wizard. The tonal balance of his setup didn't suit me. He jumped up and tweaked his variable crossovers and immediately made it sound my-just-right.)
     
  12. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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  13. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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  14. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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  15. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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    Big speakers in a smaller room can be tough, but once you dial it in, it' so worth it. My Legacy Audio Focus SE's are 125Lbs each and have dual 12" woofers, dual 7" midranges and an AMT, and I have those in a 12x18 room, in addition to dual Seaton subwoofers (130lbs, 15" woofer, 15" PR), and 7 other channels of atmos goodness.

    Some room treatments, diligent speaker placement and calibration make a hell of a difference. I would bet that @Psalmanazar would pretty easily hear the bass player f**k up in my room, since I also like to listen loud and clean.
     
  16. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    Bitchin gold horn:
    [​IMG]
    Bitchin me:
    [​IMG]
     
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  17. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    2 watches. A God among men.
     
  18. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Killer!!!!!! It must be a joy to crank that and feel the bass and the wallop from good bassists backing the riffs.
     
  19. elmoe

    elmoe Friend

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    Nevermind the gold horn and couch. Nice slippers there.
     
  20. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    @spwath epic. Everything about that bottom picture is awesome. Sick couch.

    Lol the more I look at that first pic the more shit I find. A pufferfish cup, Kodak monitor, etc.
     

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